Iran court jails Ahmadinejad aide ahead of vote

An Iranian appeal court has upheld a one-year jail sentence handed down to one of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's close aides for insulting the country's supreme leader, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

The ruling was the latest act in a high-level feud between Ahmadinejad and a group of hardline rivals who say he is in the grip of a "deviant current" of advisers trying to undermine the role of the clergy in the Islamic establishment. (Reuters)